Thirty freestyle skiers and one giant backflip

Last weekend (20th-21st April 2012), on the Mont Saint-Sauver in Quebec, thirty skiers bravely tried to backflip in unison. The attempt was organised by freestyle skiing pro Mikael Kingsbury, a six-time mogul World Cup champion with confidence to spare.

The hosts built a massive jump, wide enough to fit the 30 skiers who trained for just two hours before attempting the stunt. The first try ended in failue but the second was a resounding success, with all thirty landing the flip hand in hand.

Jerome Berneche, one of the skiers involved, said that 'on the first try, the line broke ... the slope was steeper on one side than the other, so some people did not have the same speed.'

'On the second try, everyone landed and the line didn’t break, everybody landed hand in hand. We were pretty stoked, I don’t think anybody really expected it to work that well.'

According to Kingsbury, the triumphant success came a little too late to enter this year's Guinness Book of World Records. The Guinness website features a record for the longest chain of skiers, which included 60 participants in Manchester, UK. However, there doesn't appear to be a record posted online for the longest chain of skiers completing a somersault.

The race is on to get thirty-one skiers to backflip before next year's deadline...